Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium is shown in an aerial photography made during a recent Senior Bow. (Press-Register file)

MOBILE, Alabama -- As the Mobile City Council considers Mayor Sam Jones’ proposed budget, the Ladd-Peebles Stadium board is pushing to keep its funding — and authority — in place.

Jones has proposed keeping the stadium board in place only through February, cutting the city’s appropriation for the board’s contract from $419,000 to $213,000.

When the board’s short-term contract is finished, Jones would hire a manager through the Mobile County Personnel Board’s merit system.

The City Council could keep the board’s funding in place when the budget comes up for a vote, as it is scheduled to Tuesday. Passage of most measures usually takes five votes, but it only takes four votes to pass or amend the budget when it is first introduced.

The board has been working to garner support from council members.

Chairman Randy Gould recently sent them an email touting efficiency gains made under the board’s tenure.

Joe Mishkin, president of the Mishkin Group, which manages the stadium for the board, said in the email that his company has been able to cut costs this year by almost $47,000 compared to 2010, when the stadium was still managed by Paul Christopher.

In years past, the city-owned stadium, which houses the Senior Bowl, University of South Alabama football, and the GoDaddy.com Bowl, ran at an annual loss of $387,000.

The board forced Christopher to resign this spring after a former board member discovered that he had taken $40,000 in overtime pay without formal approval.

Christopher said that the board’s former chairman, who also resigned, had given him verbal permission to charge overtime.

Council President Reggie Copeland said he’s happy with the way the stadium is run now that “a few bad apples” have been pushed out.

He stopped short of declaring whether he would support an amendment to return the board’s full funding.

Councilwoman Gina Gregory also said that she approved of the job the board was doing, saying she’d heard no complaints from any of the stadium’s regular tenants. She said she would consider supporting full funding for the board.

Councilman John Williams was less equivocal, saying he strongly supported returning the board’s full funding.

Councilwoman Bess Rich has also expressed support in the past for keeping the board intact.

When the mayor attempted to install a professional facilities management firm at the stadium, only councilmen Fred Richardson and Jermaine Burrell voted to approve the contract.

Even if the council returns funding for the board, it wouldn’t guarantee that its authority would remain in place.

Jones could refuse to enter into a contract with the board and move forward with hiring his own manager. In that scenario, the money for the board would simply remain untouched.

Jones declined through a spokeswoman to say whether he would attempt to circumnavigate the council in the event it overturned his budget cut.

Williams said that the City Council could propose its own contract with the board and move forward without the mayor’s consent, but that would require five votes.